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Omves
Phonology Consonants Fricatives and affricates are voiced intervocalically or after a nasal, e.g. the /v/ in 'Omves'. Nasals commonly assimilate in both voicing and place to a follow plosive or fricative. Consonants are romanized as their IPA symbols, except for ʃ ('sh', when voiced 'zh'), ç ('c', when voiced 'j'), ɾ ('r'), ɺ ('rl'), j ('y') and ʔ (' ' '). /ɺ/ is a rare consonant and only found in certain dialects while most speakers pronounce as /ɾ/. Vowels A front vowel will become rounded before a bilabial consonant, unless it is preceded by an velar consonant. +front > +rounded / _{mpb} ! {kg}_. Close-mid vowels become near-close in unstressed syllables. e -stressed > ɪ and o -stressed > ʊ. These changes are not shown in the romanization. There is vowel harmony shown in the verb morphology. The first vowel in the root or derived word is used to determine whether the front or back agglugnating prefixes are used. Phonotactics ©V© structure. Words have a tendency to start with a vowel that is followed by two consonants. For example, 'omv' in 'Omves'. Stress Stress lands on the first syllable of the main morpheme. Examples Omves - oɱvɪs Rla'ep - ɺaʔʏp Grammar Pronouns Verbs Verbs are usually constructed by adding suffixes to other words. For example, on means speech and su means to do, so to speak/say ''is '''onzu'. Verbs conjugate to show mood, voice and speed, and agree in number with the main argument. Each suffix has two forms which are chosen depending on the last vowel in the root. Here is a fully conjugated verb: onzulkorof speech.do.IND.REP.PAS.PLU.SLOW Because verbs do not conjugate to show tense, the third person pronouns are instead used to show the past tense. The pronoun is put after the main argument with which it agrees in number. This is usually only done for the past, but in special cases it may be done for the non-past as well. Negative clauses are created by switching the verb's first two syllables and adding the prefix te-''' e.g. '''tezuonulkoro. Both subject and object are placed in the accusative case in negative clauses. Adding '-(e)s '''to a verb root makes the action involuntary. For example, '''onko' means to listen ''and '''onkos '''means ''to hear. Word Order SOV. Pronouns may be put after the verb on dropped entirely if their meaning is clear from context. Nouns Descriptors go before a noun, and unrestrictive descriptors go after a noun. Nouns decline for several cases and three numbers. They do not show any kind of vowel harmony, unlike the verb conjugation. For example, omvesyau 'is '''omves '''in the accusative plural. Some descriptors can only go with animate nouns; to solve this problem an '-i 'can be added to an inanimate noun to allow it to be used with an animate-only descriptors. This suffix can also be a method of expressing personification. For example, '''aras '''means ''happy, but since inanimate objects cannot literally be happy, the noun phrase the happy book would be '''aras isi. The glottal stops are only used when they are at the end of the word and the next word starts with a vowel e.g. isya' ilejau. Particles There are some particles that can have a noun phrase before or after them which adjusts their meaning. For example, the particle ufko means to for a noun phrase before it, or from for a following noun phrase. These particles can have a noun phrase both before and after it, as well. For example, from the tall boy to the person would be sonvau ufko sereli tec. Nouns are left in their plain form when used with a particle. Descriptors TODO '''-i makes descriptors animate unless the descriptor is animate only Copula The copula '''i is used just like a normal verb. It is, however, irregular. For example, I am a tree is tiksoa' ashta i. Relative Clauses Relative clauses function like descriptors and as such can be placed before or after a noun to indicate restrictiveness. A relative clause is closed with a relative particle shown in the table below. The top row is for the function in the main clause and the left column is for the function in the suboodinate clause. If the relative particle needs extra particles to show the relationship, these are affixed onto the main particle. To create a relative clause between two descriptors, one may use the relative particle rlo. Here is an example: I am a boy who reads books. '''isya' iskol rla teja' ashta i. '''book.NOM.PLU read.IND RELATIVE.NOM.NOM boy.NOM.SING 1PS.ACC be.IND. Lexicon Numbers Category:Languages